I don't understand how someone could be allowed to continue stealing from people for so long. it makes no sense to me.
As I understand it, the current laws say you cannot charge a person's credit card unless the product is ready to be shipped to them.
But before the current law, a store could charge your card and ship when the item was ready. I suppose he was using that method, and simply never shipping the item as it would stay on backorder forever of course.